We Out. It's 4:30 in the morning and we're getting ready to leave the house. I think I got about two hours of sleep, then I was awake as could be, just waiting to leave. Wouldn't you know it, I'm leaving behind the beautiful California weather for a day of rain in New York. And on my travel day too, damn.

I'll pop in and out, MP3s of the week will still be posted. Time to go crazy, Broadway style!

I had these really insane anxiety dreams last night. It all started when the cat woke us up
at 5:00, right on schedule. A little while after Miss Rodeo America let him outside, we hear this
huge thump on the window and see his little face for a second until it vanished into the night. He's
been climbing the tree outside, waiting for us to let him in, but since it was cold
the window was closed, and he tried to jump anyway, falling two stories to the ground. Later, I
woke up to a catfight in the backyard, so I got up (again) and called for the little furball from
the front door, hoping nobody drove by and saw me in my underwear meowing for the cat. When I
went back to sleep, I instantly had a dream where we couldn't find bunny, but found bloody paw
prints in the backyard.

When we finally located him in the dream, his paws were torn up and bloody from falling and
fighting, so we wrapped him up in a pillowcase and petted him until he fell asleep. The next
dream I had involved getting called back in to work right after I opened my post-work beer, then
going out to the car to find it had a flat tire. As I started to change the tire, it started
raining quite hard, and the tire rolled away down the street and vanished. So, I drove my three
wheeled vehicle to a tire place in a bad part of town, kept dialing the wrong number when trying to
call into work, and ended up gettin fired. It was like, almost all of my fears all rolled in
to one. It felt good, but sleepy, to wake up.

Our having-no-place-to-stay-in-New-York-on-Saturday crisis has been averted for now, thanks to all
those who called and emailed their friends for us. It's super appreciated, and you all have open
invitations to the spare room in our humble Oakland home if you're ever in the area. Thanks also
to the stranger who is letting us sleep on his floor, saved again by friends.

MP3 of the week: I have to thank Mr. Armando Bellmas for this song, which he put on a CD for me a few months back. I actually havent' heard *any* of their other stuff, but if it's anything like this, I'm sold. I just love love love the way the guitar on the left channel is mixed really high, and screams through the entire song, even during the vocals. I also love the line about walking in the bad neighborhood after dark, and leaving the gun locked in the car and just letting your road weary face let all the street urchins know that you're the real deal. I mean, who writes an honest song about leaving their gun locked in a car? Brilliant.

I haven't had a day off work since July 14th. Only four more days until we leave the Bay behind for a little while.

I finished my "Songs For Rural Driving" mix tonight, and didn't feel like stopping there, so I actually made a mix tape. Yes, a tape, no CDs, no Minidiscs, a green Maxell tape full of great, great songs. Wow, my friend on the East Coast will be very happy to receive this, at least, I hope so. Nothing at all beats making a mix on analog tape, I don't care what you say, yo.